


In A Crowd of Thousands

by Flyting



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: First Meeting, M/M, Young Armitage Hux, Young Ben Solo, benarmie, self-indulgent trash of the highest caliber, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flyting/pseuds/Flyting
Summary: Hux recalls the time he met Ben Solo, unaware that Kylo remembers it too.“It was Endor Day,” Kylo realizes. He remembers those parades, distantly, through the veil of another life. A hot, cloudless summer day and a cheering crowd.“Yes,” Hux says. “I didn’t realize it at the time or I wouldn’t have-” he stops, shutting his mouth.“Wouldn’t what?”“I suppose I got rather into the spirit of things. I was twelve. It was warm and there was music, and everyone was so excited. Someone gave me a free iced chocolate. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted.”





	In A Crowd of Thousands

**Author's Note:**

> I've been listening to entirely too much Anastasia. This is self-indulgent trash.

“I saw him once, you know.” Hux says. “General Solo, _hero of the rebellion_.”

Kylo doesn’t move. It takes all of his strength not to move. Of all the things he does not want to discuss now, the death of Han Solo is far and beyond at the top of the list.

Hux’s bedroom is quiet, a relief from the medical ward, crowded with those evacuated from Starkiller. Hux has allowed him here, to curl up on his side on the bed and rest, in the name of whatever malformed sort of affection there was between them. He reminds himself that Hux doesn’t know- couldn’t ever know- and if he just lays there maybe Hux will think he’s gone to sleep.

“We were on Chandrila. My father had brought me along on some business arrangement. I think he wanted me to see what it was like,” Hux says. His fingers card through Kylo’s hair. Kylo isn’t sure if he realizes he’s doing it. “I had never been anywhere so extravagant.”

“I’ve been there.” His voice is rough from screaming.

“I hadn’t been planetside in years then. Just seeing it from the air was too much. There was nothing half so big or so impressive in the Unknown Regions back then. A city that stretched on for miles, and then the ocean in the distance- I couldn’t imagine how people lived there.” He stops. Changes tack. “I was supposed to stay in the hotel while father met with his contact, but there was some commotion on the street just below and I thought-” he says, chagrined with himself “Well, I thought it might be a riot or something. We had those, back home, especially during the food shortages. I was afraid of being trapped inside if they decided to firebomb the place, so I sneaked out the back. There were so many people on the street. Thousands. I couldn’t figure out why they were all so excited. Then I realized it was a parade.”

“You’d never seen one before?”

“We didn’t have anything to celebrate.”

Kylo grunts to show that he’s heard. “You said you saw-” he cannot quite get the name out, not yet.

“What? Oh, yes. He was in the parade, looking bored on a hover twice the size of any I’d ever seen, while the crowd screamed for them. All the noble heroes of the battle of Endor.”

“It was Endor Day,” Kylo realizes. He remembers those parades, distantly, through the veil of another life. A hot, cloudless summer day and a cheering crowd.

“Yes,” Hux says. “I didn’t realize it at the time or I wouldn’t have-” he stops, shutting his mouth.

“Wouldn’t what?”

“I suppose I got rather into the spirit of things. I was twelve. It was warm and there was music, and everyone was so excited. Someone gave me a free iced chocolate. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted.”

He can feel that day encapsulated in Hux’s memories. A perfect bubble of warmth and joy, locked away. The hand in his hair pauses.

“I got it into my head somehow that it was Solo and his family who were responsible for all of it, which- I suppose they were.” Hux snorts, a rush of air that ruffles Kylo’s hair. “ So I tried to go and thank them. Go ahead and laugh if you like.”

“I’m not,” his mouth is dry, “laughing. What happened then?”

Hux hesitates, and he wonders for a moment if his curiosity is suspect. Then, trying to mask his embarrassment with levity, Hux says, “I tried to run after them.”

_\- a boy pushing through the crowd -  the summer sunlight caught in his hair, making it gleam like copper - a voice cutting above the roar-_

“I chased after them. I was shouting,” he says slowly, remembering. “Han Solo didn’t give a damn about one skinny little brat, why should he, but his son noticed me. He was- maybe a little younger than I was. I don’t recall. I’d seen him up there on the hover, sitting by his mother like a little prince. Straight backed and proud, waving at all the people. He was eating an iced chocolate just like I was, and getting it all over his shimmersilk suit, which must have cost more credits than I’d ever seen in my life. I remember being so jealous, thinking- what must it be like to get iced chocolate whenever you want? I wanted to be up there and have all of those people shouting my name. To have so much.”

“It wouldn’t be worth it,” Kylo mutters into his bent arm, quietly enough that he hopes Hux hasn’t heard him.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing,” he says. “What happened then?”

“I- well, I was shouting at them and he looked over at me and smiled. Nothing more. Then the sun was in my eyes and they were gone. It wasn’t,” he pauses and the hand in Kylo’s hair picks distractedly at a tangle, “It didn’t mean anything, but out of thousands of people cheering, he looked at me. It felt... good, I suppose. To be seen.”

“I wonder what became of him, sometimes,” Hux says. “That boy. “

For a long time, the only sound is the low hum of the climate control.

Finally, Kylo says, “I can tell it better.”

“What?”

“You left out the best part.”

Hux scoffs, “By all means, Ren, if you know my own memories better than I do.”

Kylo turns over to lie on his back, stiff muscles dimly protesting the movement. He stares at the ceiling, seeing a cloudless sky instead. “It was hot. An awful day to be out under the sun. But everyone came to see the parade as it passed by. There were so many people, so much shouting and screaming. Then a boy caught everyone’s eye. He was tall and skinny like a weed, with red hair and a grey uniform jacket. There were guards protecting the procession, but he dodged in between them, ducking under their hands. Out of all those thousands of people, he made everyone see him.”

Kylo closes his eyes. If he closes them he can remember the feel of the sun on his neck and iced chocolate sticky on his hands, and a boy with red hair trying to catch his eye.

“He called out my name and I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help it. I waved and he shouted thank you. He seemed so happy. His smile was so bright. And then just as the parade passed by... he bowed.”

Hux is quiet for a long moment, stiff beside him. “If I’d known you were just going to read my mind, I wouldn’t have told you.”

“I didn’t have to read your mind. I remember it too.”

“Ren?” He can feel Hux frowning beside him. Then the realization, itching over his skin. “...It was you.”

“Goodnight, Hux.”


End file.
